Author Archive | Jakir Manela

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Trees Are Good For You

“For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people.” (Isaiah 65:22)  Dear Friends, Tu BiShvat, the New Year for Trees, arrives this Sunday-Monday, February 5-6. The Tu BiShvat seder is a very special opportunity to find a few mid-winter moments of mindfulness, stillness, and awareness. It is an invitation to celebrate the holiness of our tree-neighbors, to appreciate their sanctity, and to notice our profound spiritual connection to and interdependence with all life on earth. You can find a treasure of Tu BiShvat holiday resources, and several beautiful Tu BiShvat haggadot, on our website. And while we begin this February with a beautiful Tu BiShvat celebration, we are excited to share a major announcement with you later this month regarding our future as a new merged organization. But for now, back to trees. A month ago, The Washington Post published an article entitled, “The happiest, least stressful, most meaningful jobs in America”. The author, Andrew Van Dam, worked with a team in order to analyze data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and then rank well-being by industry, looking at levels of happiness, meaning, and stress in each sector. Guess what industry scored at the very top?  Agriculture & Forestry. […]

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Questions For Our Future

Dear Friends, What a year! In less than two weeks our merger will be legally official, so I’m reflecting these days on our past, present, and future. A real highlight of this year for me was traveling to COP27 in Egypt with ten campus leaders of the Jewish Youth Climate Movement and ten Israeli youth leaders from Nitzana, an educational youth village in Israel’s Negev desert. Special thanks to JAFI and other investors for your support. These JYCM leaders are now speaking about their COP27 experience at events nationwide, and poised to grow our campus impact moving forward. So how do we maximize more youth leadership opportunities? And how can our COP28 delegation be an even greater catalyst for culture change and systemic change? Another highlight came just a few days ago, when my family and I traveled to Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center for the Adva Reunion. My wife and I met at Isabella Freedman almost 20 years ago when she did the Adamah fellowship and I was a Teva educator, so we were overjoyed to reunite with over 140 Teva and Adamah alumni and their partners, spouses, and children. There are now almost 1,000 Adva alumni doing amazing […]

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Hold the Center

“I have often said that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children. It is faith put in action. It is the sober recognition that we pray not only with our lips but with our legs.” – Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, Dec 6, 2022 Friends, Over the past few months, I have been traveling and speaking to hundreds of Jewish leaders and institutions across the spectrum of Jewish life. Federations and summer camps, day schools and congregations, social service agencies, social justice organizations, Israeli & Arab & Muslim & multifaith partners, leaders of all Jewish denominations and yes, a variety political persuasions as well. In each conversation, leaders and institutions lean in to partner with us, in many cases representing their first steps in prioritizing climate and sustainability. Slowly but surely, we are building a broad and deep coalition–including and transcending our “base.” By engaging the mainstream Jewish world, we are inspiring and empowering a new network of allies and partners, multiplying our impact. Hazon leadership has lead or will lead discussions on sustainability and climate at the following conferences, November through January: Meanwhile, the midterms (and the Georgia finale […]

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COP27, Mount Sinai, and Flora of Vanuatu

Friends, This year, thanks to support from the Jewish Agency for Israel and several supporting foundations, our first-ever Jewish Youth Climate Movement delegation traveled to COP27: ten Jewish climate activists from campuses across North America, and ten Israelis from the educational youth village, Nitzana. We were there alongside 35,000 participants from all over the world.  I was honored to speak about our work on Friday November 11th at a session called Faith Communities Leading on Climate–you can see the recording here. It was inspiring to connect with multifaith allies at that session and throughout the conference.  I traveled with Nigel Savage (Hazon’s founder), Yossi Abramowitz (American-Israeli CEO of Energiya Global Capital and co-founder of the Arava Power Company), David Miron-Wapner (board chair of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development), and Sue Surkes (British-Israeli reporter for the Times of Israel). We drove to a small bedouin village at the foot of what locals believe to be Mount Sinai, or as it’s known in Arabic, Gebel Musa. We woke at 1:30am and spent the night hiking up the mountain, arriving at the summit just before dawn. The Sinai wilderness is majestic and awe-inspiring, beautiful beyond words, and quite powerful to be on […]

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Israel & the Diaspora: The View From a Bike

Friends, The last few weeks of travel have been intense and amazing. Over the next few weeks I’ll share stories and learnings from my journey. I began in Chicago at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. Living and working in the Baltimore Jewish community, I’ve developed a deep understanding and appreciation for Jewish federations, so it was with great excitement and gratitude that we led our own session at the GA featuring federation leaders from the Associated, UJA-NY, and Vancouver —all investing in climate and sustainability as an important aspect of their work. We also featured JFNA leadership in this arena as well as the Jewish Agency for Israel. Our goal is to grow federation partnerships nationwide—help us connect with your local federation leaders! Then I flew to Israel, where I participated in the Arava Institute-Hazon Israel Ride, such a beautiful way to experience the country and support both our work and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a global leader in the movement to build peaceful coexistence through environmental cooperation. I rode 180 miles over four days, including a beautiful Shabbat in Mitzpeh Ramon along the way. I was deeply moved by the beauty of the land and […]

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Raising Up Our Voices in the Midterm Elections

Friends, At Hazon-Pearlstone, we are dedicated to making the planet and the Jewish people more healthy and whole. Foundational to these efforts in the United States is a thriving democracy that responds to the people it represents. We are stronger as a nation when each voice is heard, and we are blessed with the opportunity to raise our voices with each election. We are proud to support staff and our wider community in participating in fair and free elections. We do not endorse any particular party or candidate, and our commitment is undertaken in a spirit of nonpartisanship and seeks to promote free, fair, safe accessible elections. This year Hazon-Pearlstone is partnering in the following ways to engage with voters on the values that matter most to us: creating a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world for all. Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Hazon’s Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) is co-hosting phone banks this fall, as part of Dayenu’s Chutzpah 2022 campaign to encourage Jewish climate-concerned voters to participate in the upcoming midterm elections. Join JYCM teen leaders on Tuesday November 1 from 6:30-8:30pm ET. Check out the full roster of phone-bank sessions here. Volunteering Hazon-Pearlstone & JYCM have […]

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Elul, Shmita, & Culture Change

Friends, We find ourselves in the month of Elul, a time for introspection and checking in with ourselves, a time to confront all the ways in which we missed the mark this past year, and a time to reflect upon who we want to be in the year ahead. We prepare with anticipation of the holy days coming soon, and we begin the work of teshuvah, tfilah, and tzedakah–repentance, prayer, and justice–so that we may transform ourselves and our world. But this is not just any Elul. This is the end of the Shmita year, and as Rav Kook teaches us, “What the Sabbath does for the individual, Shmita does for the nation.” So now is the time to ask ourselves both individually and collectively, communally, and globally: What does repentance, prayer, and justice mean for all our people, and for all our planet? Hazon-Pearlstone’s mission is to lead a transformative movement deeply weaving sustainability into the fabric of Jewish life, catalyzing culture change and systemic change through Immersive Retreats, Jewish Environmental Education, and Climate Action. Through education, we seek to create the culture change that Shmita beckons of us, changing lives and building a new kind of Jewish culture […]

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We Rise

“We Rise. Humbly Hearted, Rise. Won’t Be Divided, Rise. With Spirit to Guide Us, Rise. In Hope, In Prayer, We Find Ourselves Here. In Hope, In Prayer, We’re Right Here. We Rise.”  –Batya Levine Friends, Two days ago, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, the culmination of what some have called a “political miracle,” rescuing enormous climate progress from the jaws of defeat just a few weeks ago. Progress IS possible, people power DOES matter, and there really IS vast societal change unfolding all around us. Yet we cannot deny the difficulty of the work ahead. “Glaciers in Europe are experiencing the most severe melting on record,” reports the Washington Post today, and that “Researchers say the melting is ‘off the charts’—and the season isn’t over yet.” So this is a moment for gratitude, strength, and recommitment to the transformative work ahead. With wind at our backs and a long, long way to go. So we rise, as a choice, as an act of faith, as a way of life. Amid this historic moment, leaders of our Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) gathered at Pearlstone last week for a week-long retreat. JYCM teens led workshops and programs building trust and friendship, developed organizing skills, and […]

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Hope in the Dark

The Jews gave to the world this idea of time as a narrative of hope, which meant that what is lost can be regained, what is destroyed can be rebuilt, and what disappears may one day return. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “On Tisha B’Av For Our Time” The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as the grave. – Rebecca Solnit, “Hope In the Dark” Friends, This past weekend we observed Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Hebrew calendar, when we fast and mourn the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem along with other disasters that fell on this day over time. Many in our movement lament not only our loss as a people on this day, but also our loss as a planet: grieving climate change, environmental racism and injustice, massive species extinction, and countless other traumas we have wrought upon ourselves, people and planet. So it is with tearful gratitude and earnest hope that we watched a minor miracle unfold over the weekend – on Tisha B’Av – when the United States Senate passed the largest investment ($370 Billion) towards combating climate change in our nation’s history! The Inflation Reduction Act is not […]

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A Prayer for our Country

Friends, Today, the Supreme Court of the United States, in their ruling on the West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) case, stripped the EPA’s authority to limit carbon pollution from power plants, drastically reducing our ability to fight climate change. This ruling takes us in the exact opposite, wrong direction: increasing emissions and accelerating climate catastrophes. And though we are all impacted, those hit hardest by this ruling are our most vulnerable fellow Americans: low-income Black & Brown communities living near power plants and harmed by environmental injustices. We find this court’s ruling – gutting the EPA’s ability to curtail the existential threat of carbon emissions – to be morally and religiously unconscionable. And this comes, of course, on the heels of a rather devastating few days, as last week the Supreme Court first eroded states’ abilities to enact gun safety regulations, and then overturned Roe vs Wade, effectively ending the federal protections for the right to an abortion. We are rocked by these rulings, and want to share the Jewish Council for Public Affairs statement on gun safety here, and invite you to join us in supporting our partners at the National Council for Jewish Women. So it’s […]

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Od Lo Avdah Tikvatenu, Our Hope is Not Yet Lost

Today is Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, the 74th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel in 1948. Yesterday was Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Day of Remembrance, a day for grieving the loss of 24,000 fallen Israeli soldiers and 4,000 civilians killed in terrorist attacks over the years. In Palestinian society, Yom Ha’Atzmaut is known as the Nakba-Catastrophe, mourning the 1948 loss of Palestinians’ homeland and the displacement of a majority of the Palestinian people. For me, these days–back to back and inside-out–are the most powerful holy day(s) of the year. And especially in the diaspora, how do we relate to this land, this country, and this time of year? Really, how do we orient to all of this? And not just personally but organizationally – for Hazon & Pearlstone – how do we approach our relationship to Israel, and Palestine? This is just the beginning of a long journey, but I want to take this opportunity to share our orientation to these important questions. Our mission is to lead a transformative movement deeply weaving sustainability into the fabric of Jewish life. We connect people to the earth and to each other, catalyzing culture change and systemic change through […]

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Yom HaShoah | Legacy & Responsibility

Friends, Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. One of my early memories is the moment my father told me that almost all of our family–his parents’ families–were murdered in the Holocaust.  My grandparents, Saul & Lonia, grew up in Lodz, Poland. They lived through the ghetto and the camps, the death marches, and found each other in an American army-operated displaced persons camp in Germany after the war. They fell in love, got married, and had their first child–my aunt Blanche–while still living in the camp. Eventually, with support from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, they came to America, arriving at Ellis Island and then welcomed into the Pittsburgh Jewish community where they began a new life. That’s when my dad was born.  My legal name is Jeremy K Manela; my Hebrew name is Jakir (pronounced Yakir), because I am named after my great-grandfather, Jakir Kompel, Lonia’s father. Jakir died in the gas chambers at Birkenau. Grandma survived, and somehow found the strength with Grandpa to live on, find love, build a family, and give with all her heart all her life. I remember being at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Pittsburgh as a young child–we really loved that […]

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Freedom, Wandering, & Resilience

“In every generation, one must see oneself as if one had personally experienced the Exodus from Egypt.” – Passover Haggadah  Friends, Like our ancestors leaving Egypt – beginning the long desert wandering – we face daunting years and decades ahead. The Israelites rejoiced with the Song of the Sea: we’re free! And then we walked out into the wilderness, not knowing what lay ahead. Moshe, Miriam, and Aharon led us: first to the mountain, and eventually home. It was a long and winding trail, both traumatic and transformative. Today, we are horrified by war crimes in Ukraine, tyranny and fascism on the rise, and fossil fuel profits propping up a new Pharoah. So this Pesach, we celebrate spring renewal and commit to a deeper freedom – a global transformation of epic proportions. The fight for democracy and decarbonization is not going to be quick or easy; the path to freedom takes us through the wilderness. Science tells us that we are embarking upon a lot more than 40 years of wandering in the deserts of climate crisis. So as we enter this wilderness together, let us summon our will and our strength; our perseverance, resourcefulness, and resilience; our tenacity, our […]

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Purim is True

Friends, What is Purim? And Have We All Gone Mad? Purim is everywhere. A masquerade. A feast. A time of drinking and debauchery. Why? The unbridled joy of early spring? Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die? G!d…not mentioned once. G!d’s deafening absence in our first story of Exile. How do we survive in the Diaspora? Well…no one is coming to rescue us. We must keep faith in the darkness. And accept that empire persists. We reckon again with old, old hatreds. Amalek attacks. Grave danger, violence, evil surrounds us. Will salvation come? Purim is everywhere.   Before starting to read the megillah (Book of Esther/Purim story) to the kids at dinner last night, I first read the Torah verses connected with Purim: “Amalek came and battled Israel…G!d maintains a war against Amalek, from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:8 and 17:16). Our son, Shama (12 years old), asked “Where is Amalek now?” Well, one particular dictator comes to mind, but it’s more complicated than that. Yes, Purim is real. In every generation there are those who rise up to destroy us. War rages in Ukraine; people need help. Our Hakhel Co-Directors, Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi and Michal […]

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Support our Partners in Ukraine

Friends, “War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.”  – Thomas Mann We are heartbroken and outraged as Putin’s merciless war on Ukraine continues. We will not be silent, and we will do all we can to support our partners impacted on the ground. At Hazon and Hakhel, we have a three-part strategy in responding to this crisis: Local Leadership: Ukrainian leaders know their landscape and their needs. We are following the lead of Hakhel community leaders inside Ukraine and local rabbis working with refugees on the borders. Collaboration & Partnership: We are partnering with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the European Council of Jewish Communities, Reut, the Jewish Peoplehood Coalition, and more, coordinating our collective crisis response efforts. Global Response: We can all do something to help. The situation is rapidly evolving, both in terms of needs and solutions, all of which require resources and support. Sometimes our Ukrainian partners need volunteers, sometimes they need equipment, and throughout the process they need financial resources. Here are just a few examples of what this strategy looks like on the ground: Following up on our weekly meeting with our Ukrainian partners, we received the list of needs from the Lvov […]

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